Supreme Court commutes death sentence of man convicted in minor’s rape, murder case

A bench of Justices D Y Chandrachud, Dinesh Maheshwari and C T Ravikumar found nothing wrong with the August 2016 trial court ruling holding the man guilty or the October 2017 Allahabad High Court order upholding the conviction.

The court noted that the accused was 33-34 years old at the time of commission of offence in 2015, and said, “Looking to the overall facts and circumstances… it would be just and proper to award the punishment of imprisonment for life to the appellant for the offence under section 302 IPC while providing for actual imprisonment for a minimum period of 30 years.”

The bench further said, “In an overall view of the matter, it is proved beyond doubt in this case that the hapless child, seven-year-old daughter of the complainant, met with her gruesome end after having been treated inhumanely and having been subjected to sexual assault… The appellant was rightly convicted by the Trial Court and his conviction has rightly been maintained by the High Court”.

However, on the question of the death sentence, the court said, “… the principles of penology have evolved to balance the other obligations of the society, i.e., of preserving the human life, be it of accused, unless termination thereof is inevitable and is to serve the other societal causes and collective conscience of society. “…it is noticeable that the appellant has no criminal antecedents…and has unblemished jail conduct. When all these factors are added together and it is also visualised that there is nothing on record to rule out the probability of reformation and rehabilitation of the appellant…”